Banana Cake Roll with Cream Cheese Filling

Well, I don’t think I could ever get tired of banana bread. But if you’re looking to try something a little different with those overripe bananas sitting in your fruit basket, how about a banana roll? Banana sponge cake spread with a thick cream cheese filling rolled up into one yummy package — what’s not to love?

You’ve had pumpkin roll before, haven’t you? This is the same thing, except made with banana sponge cake rather than pumpkin. In fact, I just used the recipe for pumpkin roll, substituted banana for the pumpkin, took out the spices, and voila!

It was one of those experiments that could have been a total disaster but just happened to turn out very well. If you’ve been reading Pinch My Salt long, you know that most of my ‘original recipes’ are created this way!

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease 15×10 inch jelly-roll pan (also known as half sheet pan); line with parchment or waxed paper. Grease and flour paper; set aside. Spread out a clean, thin dish towel on the counter (make sure the towel is larger than your jelly roll pan); sprinkle liberally with powdered sugar (this can be done using a mesh strainer).

2. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda.

3. In a large bowl combine eggs and sugar; beat until thickened. Add banana; beat until well mixed.

4. Stir in flour mixture into egg mixture. Spread batter evenly into prepared pan, easing it carefully to the corners with a spatula.

5. Bake in preheated 375 degree oven for 13 to 15 minutes or until center springs back when lightly touched.

Personally, I feel you're focusing on the wrong part of this... The banana bread, roll, doorstop, whatever, is at most secondary... The star of this post is the cream cheese filling! The baked whatever is simply used as a transport mechanism to get cream cheese icing into the mouth!

Deborah: I really can't believe that it took me so long to think of this, it's the perfect combination!
Jennifer: The cream cheese is the best part!
Piealamona: You're welcome! And I agree, this is perfect to send to the office!
Curt: I know, I really didn't talk enough about the cream cheese! In fact, the whole reason I dreamed this up was because I had extra cream cheese frosting leftover from the Red Velvet Cake I made recently. I couldn't let the frosting go to waste and I can only eat so much by the spoonful starting to feel sick! I was going to make some banana muffins and frost them but some friends and I were talking about Pumpkin Roll the other night and the next day a lightbulb went off!
Mike: I think Nutella would be AWESOME in this! What a great idea!

Padmaja: Have fun!
Ruby: The "creativity with food" comes from my Dad. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't ;-)
Kevin: Thanks a lot! If the temperature ever drops here, I'll start making some pumpkin stuff again. For some reason I need the weather to actually feel like Autumn before I can start making Autumn food!
Anh: I just saw a recipe for a vanilla swiss roll with lemon curd that sounds delicious!!
Amanda: Thanks!
Ilva: You're welcome, thanks for having such a great blog ;-)

Sara: Three euros a slice! Ouch! We don't have any American bakeries down here except for one I know of on the other side of the island. But we do have our American grocery store on base so I can buy ingredients for just about anything I crave. But with all the yummy pasticcerie around, I don't miss American bakeries too much :-)
Brilynn: Why not make one of each? :-)
Manggy: I saw that recipe when I was trying to figure out who else was making banana rolls. Her cake is a butter cake rather than sponge and even though she says it can be rolled, I'm still be a little nervous to try it! But since I actually like butter cake better than sponge cake, I think I will try it sometime. I was thinking that her version would be especially good with the Nutella filling that Kevin mentioned!
Carla: I usually do the same thing. About as adventurous as I ever used to get with ripe bananas was making banana muffins instead of a loaf of banana bread! It was fun to try something new although my banana muffins are much healthier than this cake!

OMG!!! This looks so good and I'd been recently thinking about how I've never tried any cake roll recipes. I'm so going to try this! Again, I'm printing out the recipe.
And I don't know if this is new or I just never noticed it before, but I see the little printer icon for this post. I've been trying to figure out how to do this for my blog. Any pointers or suggestions? Thank you Nicole! ; )

MMMM!! Looks fantastic. Thanks for a new banana idea.
I just made a pumpkin cake/bar recipe that called for cream cheese icing, and I put just a pinch each of cinnamon and nutmeg in the icing, and it was delicious. I bet that would work really well with this recipe too.

Beautiful! That's exactly how I get most of my original recipes too! Experimenting can be fun, unless you're starving and screw up dinner. That 20 minutes waiting on the pizza to get here takes forever ;)

Oh that looks excellent! I'm going to have to go and buy some bananas now. I adore bananas but tend to buy them in a big bunch which often means I have a few which get really ripe before I can eat them. I love mixing them mashed into cake batter - it's a great way of using them, so I'll be giving this recipe a try too!

Cindy: Well, if you make it :-)
Anali: Yes, the print option is something brand new! I guess I should write a post and point it out. It's nice because it allows you to print just the post without the photos or sidebar or anything else. I'm glad you like it!
Jason: You might be on to something there....
Katie: Your pumpkin bars sound great! Adding spices to the cream cheese filling is an excellent idea! I'll probably be stealing it ;-)
cooking4two: Hahahaha! Yes, you're right. And where I live, there aren't many delivery options so if I screw up dinner, it's usually boxed mac n' cheese!
Cynthia: Yes, that's what I love about rolled cakes! They are fairly simple to make but look really pretty!
Diane: I do the same thing! I always buy too many bananas at once and then can't finish them before they are too ripe :-)

What a good invention! I've never seen a recipe for a banana roll before and I have no idea why -- it's a sensational idea. I also like the OP's idea of a nutella filling too. Tish Boyle has a recipe for a banana walnut cake that's served with a caramel mascarpone whipped cream which I think would be another great filling for this.
Also, thanks for the link to my blog.

Wow does this look good! And it's perfect for our house. My husband is a fiend for carrot cake (primarily for the frosting) and we always have overripe bananas around because of our daughter. I'll most CERTAINLY be trying this out. Thanks!

Candy: This cake actually rolls surprisingly well! It's a sponge cake and they are more pliable than butter cakes. Also it's really thin! Rolling it while warm and letting it cool in the towel makes it easier to roll back up again after filling it. It really does work!
Tony: I tried it with walnuts and it was really good!

I just made pumpkin cake roll for the first time last week - saw a recipe for it in this month's SAVEUR magazine - the recipe is virtually the same as the pumpkin roll cake you made. I was thinking that I would use the roll technique with whipped cream and chocolate cake (Black Forest Cake). Brilynn alerted me to this post about banana cake roll. Great idea. I bet pecans or walnuts would be a terrific addition.
Have you omitted the powdered sugar from the towel? Do you think it's a necessary step for rolling and unrolling the cake? (I found the pumpkin cake to be a bit too sweet) An added bonus to the towel without sugar on it would be that it would be MUCH easier to transfer the hot cake to the towel.
-Elizabeth

What a great idea! I love banana bread, but this is a fun way to spiff things up. I made a banana bread this week using coconut oil and it was so fragrant and delicious. I'll have to try out your method sometime. Thanks for the inspiration!

This is an amazing recipe ! I've done it over and over and its easily adaptable, esp for extra healthy! and super simple
I just pick a blend of types of flours [soy & wheat] and use spenda baking blend instead of sugar, egg whites, and for the spread i use fat free cream cheese, use applesauce instead of butter, add some cinnamon
and it's 105% amazing
Thanks so much for this recipe!
Your website is wonderful :)
and I really admire you !

This looks scrumptious!!! You should enter it in this banana bread contest:
http://thenewstayathomemom.com/moist-banana-bread-recipe-contest
The prize is a $50 Sur La Table giftcard. There aren't very many people that have entered the contest either, so it would be pretty easy to win! Plus you'll get more links back to your website!
I could do the wrong thing, and enter it myself, but that would be bad karma!!! :)

I'm always looking for ways to use up bananas. I usually freeze them until I'm in the mood for another loaf of Banana Bread. This is a great idea! I just made a pumpkin roll a couple weeks ago, I'm going to give this a try with some of those frozen bananas. Thanks!

I have been making and selling banana rolls and pumpkin rolls for years.. The only difference is I add pineapple to my filling. It is to die for. I got the idea from my parents 50th anniversary cake, it was a banana cake with pineapple filling. I loved the combo so much I tried it with the roll and it was an instant hit. Now I sell more banana rolls than pumpkin rolls. Enjoy!!!

Oh my god was this good! I have been looking for a new recipe to use up overripe bananas and this one turned out delicious! My husband absolutely loved it! Will be making this again for the holidays! I never fooled with this type of recipe because i thought i would screw it up but this one is foolproof! Thank You so much for posting this recipe!

OMG I'm soooo happy right now! I wanted to make a banana roll and i have a recipe that i got from somewhere-maybe BHG recipe book, but the cream cheese filling was not that great. I have a recipe for pumpkin roll and thought of trying to combine that cream cheese filling with the banana roll cake recipe and then had a second thought to just switch the bananas for the pumpkin in the pumpkin roll recipe. but i was afraid to just try it so i went on a search to find another banana roll recipe and lo & behold I found this! Thank you sooo much for having the guts to just try it out!and letting the rest of us know it went well!

I saw everyone of these blogs…. soooo coooool…. I don´t see anything so nice in my country… But I have to tell(write), that your blog is one of the most beautiful from this 47 blogs…sorry 48 with yours. Very good inspiration…thnx

This is a great recipe! I just made it. One thing I noticed though is that in the directions you do not mention to mix in the 1/4 tsp of salt listed in the ingredients. Just a heads up that you forgot that little piece of information! It turned out great though anyway! Thanks.

This turned out great, I just made it after dinner tonight. No problems with it sticking to the towel, which was what I was worried about.
Instead of butter for the filling I substituted a few tablespoons of peanut butter and it was really good.

[...] roll recipe and exchange banana for pumpkin and remove spices. Simple enough. Option 2: Use the banana roll recipe from Pinch My Salt. I was going to use Option 1 but Brian thought Option 2 would be fluffier so I [...]